The biggest changes to arts funding in a generation are coming. Here’s what we know
Saturday, 6 June 2026
Creative New Zealand is preparing to hand responsibility for distributing up to $40 million in annual arts funding to a network of regional partners, marking one of the biggest changes to the agency’s funding model in its history.
Once fully implemented, the new system will see regional organisations make decisions on up to half or more of Creative NZ’s total annual funding ‒ which fluctuates each year but was just over $70m for 2024/5 ‒ with artists and arts groups applying directly for regional funding through regional partners, rather than the national agency.
Creative NZ will continue to invest directly in national priorities, international activity, specific art forms, and targeted opportunities.
Motivated by years of feedback that its current funding processes are not fit for purpose, overly bureaucratic, and favour urban centres, Creative NZ hopes to have the new model in place by 2028, or earlier if some regions are ready.
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The partners are not yet decided, but could cover everything from regional arts groups to iwi to independent organisations.
Appropriate systems, processes and safeguards ‒ including robust conflict of interest policies and transparency around decision-making ‒ will be put in place to ensure accountability for public funding, but the core idea is to let partners that are already embedded in communities make decisions about their relevant areas.
This differs from the current model in which assessors or internal Creative NZ staff - who are potentially based elsewhere - decide on who gets what.
Some previous criticism of the agency has been that adept grant writers are essentially able to reap the system’s rewards, while other worthy initiatives are instead looked over by assessors, who don’t necessarily have on-the-ground knowledge about an applicant’s strengths, capabilities, or local impacts.
The new model will mean that partners will take over the responsibility of distributing funding.
Creative NZ will then refocus its energy on projects of national or international scale; touring organisations; sub-sectors that deliver on a national or global basis (for example, publishing); advocacy and increasing investment in the arts; cross-sector leadership and strategy; and development work.
It will also take on an accountability and mentorship role, regarding the regional models and how they will distribute funding and lead arts development for their regions.
“We must work harder,” Creative NZ chief executive Gretchen La Roche tells The Post in an interview. “Costs are going up, grants are not, [our] core funding has not. We can’t just keep going in the same way.”
While it could have created separate funds for each region, added more regional representation to decision-making panels, or continued to rely on existing place-based funding approaches such as the creative communities scheme, La Roche said Creative NZ ultimately settled on the regional partner model “because they go further than just changing who makes funding decisions. They enable regions to shape their own arts development priorities, relationships, investments, and opportunities”.
“To make the significant change required, it needs to be about much more than just funding. Regional partners will help build connections, support capability and practice development, attract additional investment, act as a strong regional arts advocacy voice, and strengthen regional arts ecosystems over time.”
While it hasn’t yet been confirmed which existing funding programmes will disappear or how much each regional partner will get to dole out, La Roche said there would be transparency around it.
The agency wanted to ensure regional equity, and ensure its processes for choosing regional partners was fair.
The agency did not directly approach any particular groups about taking up the role, instead publishing an expressions of interest notice that closed last week, to gauge which regions were well-catered to; what organisations or groups could potentially step into the roles; and where the agency may need to work on establishing such a group, if one does not yet exist or where there is no appetite to assume such duties.
“Each partnership will be unique to its own region. … It’s a recognition of our commitment to strengthening a truly national network of people who can represent the arts and support the arts,” La Roche says.
Much of the detail of the new model is still to be worked through, but La Roche is hoping that by the end of 2027 artists and organisations will be able to start applying for funding through their regional partner.
The regional partners will be paid - though again, exactly how much is unknown.
La Roche said the money would come from Creative NZ’s existing budget, without it reducing the amount of funding it pumps into the sector.
The expectation was that back-office work would be kept as “efficient and lean as possible” through the use of existing tools and digital technology.
In terms of whether there was a risk that councils could use the new model to move away from funding local arts, La Roche said Creative NZ believed it had the potential to do the opposite, and unlock new funding.
The regional partner model was the culmination of the agency’s years-long organisation-wide review of its funding and services.
“This is the logical conclusion from what we heard,” La Roche said.
She also had a word for those worried about the scale of the changes.
This was “not a case of handing over and walking away”, nor was it Creative NZ wanting to recreate satellite offices in the regions. It would be sharing its knowledge around best practice.
“We’ll be standing alongside, be regularly in contact, building and supporting [capability]. … In some places, actively involved, in the initial stages. We will be there.”
However, she said Creative NZ’s intention was not to build a system where individual funding decisions were routinely reviewed or overturned.
The partner organisations would need to meet the same standards of fairness, transparency, and accountability expected of any organisation distributing public funds, La Roche said.
Partners will be expected to provide clear communication, timely decisions, and constructive feedback for applicants, as well as have clear processes for handling questions, complaints, and requests for review where concerns are raised about process or decision-making.
As part of the change, Creative NZ would explore the feasibility of some form of appeals process.
Because of its existing external peer assessor model, La Roche said Creative NZ was keenly aware of the sector’s capability to make decisions, support one another, and think outside the box.
“We can’t keep going … with things being as tough as they are. We are really trying to improve things so that artists can do their work well. … We have listened hard. Many have called for this. We really believe this is something that has the potential to elevate understanding and awareness; lead to better investment; and make it easier for artists, groups and organisations to be … [in] control of their future.”
Creative NZ would also start thinking more ambitiously about how it could secure additional international investment.
Both the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Minister were across the new model and, from an election point of view, no change in government would see Creative NZ abandons its plans, La Roche said.
Once the new model was up and running, La Roche expected between $30 million and $40m of the agency’s funding would be distributed through the regional partners.
While embedding the new model would likely be challenging and full of surprises, La Roche said the opportunity to join up thinking - and for regional arts strategies to thrive - was “really significant”.
“The devil will be in the landing and delivery of this ‒ not just as it happens, but in the years that follow. … It is a major shift, and certainly something of significance. And yes, it has the potential to have a profound impact for the better for our arts and creative sectors. … Time will be the test of that.”
Creative NZ hopes to secure its regional partners by the end of this year.
The agency last week had its operating funding cut by $1.3 million over four years, by the sitting National-led coalition Government. This represents a reduction from $16.9m in funding given in 2024/5, to $15.6m in four years’ time.